Vancouver's anti-gang unit, which relies on federal grant money, seeks new sources of funding in its ongoing, shifting battle

View full sizeAmanda Waldroupe/Special to The OregonianGangs in Vancouver mark their territory with graffiti, which often involves crossing out a rival gang's work. Vancouver's anti-gang unit, a collaboration between the police and other agencies, depends on fragile federal funding.

Driving down Fourth Plain Boulevard in an unmarked cop car with tinted windows, Huberty points out graffiti on abandoned buildings, gas stations and parks frequented by Vancouver's two main rival gangs, the Surenos and Nortenos.

At an abandoned Fred Meyer, he immediately deciphers two layers of blue and black graffiti. The blue was painted first, he says, by a member of the Sureno gang, and the black by a Norteno gang member who crossed out the blue.

"He didn't do it right," Huberty says. Norteno gang members most often identify with the color red. This tagger, with his black scrawl, might have been a novice.

Huberty drives past empty MyPark Neighborhood Park, which used to be a regular gang meeting place. Cruising through the Rosemere and Harney Heights neighborhoods, he notices with satisfaction that a lot of graffiti has been painted over.

One of the reasons Vancouver has a serious gang problem, some police officers say, is that the department's then 8-year-old anti-gang unit was shut down in 2003 because the city didn't have the money to continue it. In 2009, Vancouver received a two-year, $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to restart the unit.

This summer the gangs have been relatively quiet. Huberty attributes this to 10 or so key arrests the anti-gang unit made in the spring.

The stats The downturn in gang activity in Vancouver certainly is welcome. In 2010, there were 264 cases involving gangs in the city, down from a high of 298 in 2008.

These numbers may seem gaudy, but they're low compared with the bigger city's across the river. According to Pete Simpson, the Portland Police Bureau's public information officer, there were 93 gang-related shootings and stabbings in Portland last year. Vancouver had 48. Still, Huberty says Vancouver's gang problem is significant -- and it's connected to Portland's. "It's not to the extent of violence that Portland sees," Huberty says. "[But] there are regular violent encounters that include assaults, stabbings and shootings." The crimes most often committed by gangs are violent assaults, weapon and drug trafficking, money laundering and theft. Whereas Portland's gangs are predominantly African American, Vancouver's are mostly Latino.

Huberty says there is "a continued and fairly prominent influx of Portland gangs and black gangs" to Vancouver, which impacts the dynamics of Vancouver's various gangs. Huberty emphasizes that there is no documentation or statistics to show how much Portland's gangs affect Vancouver's, but he says Vancouver first began noticing Portland gang members coming to Washington in the 1990s to escape violence in Portland.

"It's a safer place to live," says Joe Walsh, the program director of Vancouver's Safe Communities Task Force, which spearheads gang prevention and intervention efforts. The Portland gang members, of course, make it less safe. Their arrival in Vancouver usually causes conflict. "It keeps us on our toes," Huberty says.

View full sizeROSS WILLIAM HAMILTON/THE OREGONIANKiki Murphy, 5, of Harney Heights climbs on the MyPark Neighborhood Park welcome sign. Gangs often have targeted the park for graffiti and other gang activity.

Cliff Cook, Vancouver's police chief, expects the funds to decrease or end as Congress turns its efforts toward deficit reduction. "It will have a negative impact on our community and our department," he says.

Without that funding, he adds, "we would try to seek some efficiencies with current resources ... and make some hard choices about the services we provide." Making a case for funding Cook says he is certain that Vancouver's gang culture would become stronger without the presence of the anti-gang unit. All gang-related crimes would be investigated by detectives and officers who wouldn't have the specialized training and skills that are required to be in the anti-gang unit. The loss of the gang unit would have "a detrimental impact on our ability to track gangs and whether they're growing, and what their criminal intentions are," Cook says.

The police department hopes to prove that its gang unit is successful. Beginning in the next few weeks, the Vancouver Police Department, in collaboration with schools, the Safe Communities Task Force, and a professor at Washington State University-Vancouver, will undertake a "gang assessment" for the first time. By gathering statistics about arrests, Vancouver's gangs, and the success rate of prevention and intervention efforts, they hope they can make a concrete case for stable funding.

Walsh, of the Safe Communities Task Force, says it is necessary to have a multifaceted response to gangs. Boys in their middle-school years most often join gangs because they lack a feeling of identity, belonging and purpose. "For one youth, it might be education issues. For another, it might be substance abuse," he says. "It's not a one-fix solution. A collaborative, multipronged approach has been the only thing shown to be successful."